


Switching Sides

by Amoux



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-08-18 18:30:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8171605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amoux/pseuds/Amoux
Summary: An AU.  Bianca never became a huntress, and survived.  And the two Hades children grow increasingly alienated at Camp Half-Blood.  Something I had laying around.





	

_You know, at first I never really got why so many demigods would decide to turn their backs on everything they know, their friends, their family, to get a swing at the Gods and try to destroy them. I didn’t understand why they would go to such lengths to cause pain and chaos at Camp Half-Blood. Now, after about four years here, I think I’m finally starting to get it._  
  
_Four years as a demigod. Four years wondering who I was, if my father was ever going to think I’m important enough to send a message to. Telling me what I’m meant for, what I’m capable of doing. Connor and Travis always told me that normally by the age of twelve children are claimed by their Godly parents. So when my 12th birthday came around, I was pretty excited. But it never happened. It never happened for Bianca, either. We were unclaimed._  
  
_And we’re too old for this shit. I just turned sixteen. Bianca’s eighteen. And we’re getting antsy. We’re done with this camp._  
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
  
Nico heard some shuffling in the cabin and he groaned, lifting his head up. He was on the floor, only the actual demigod children of Hermes are graced with beds, but by now he was used to the hardness of the floor. Nico rubbed his eyes tiredly, watching the shape shuffling around in the darkness. “Bianca?” He asked and he yawned, giving a stretch and crawled over to her. Her freckled face was hidden in shadow as she stuffed clothes into a camp bag. “...what are you doing?”  
  
“I’m leaving.” Her reply was short and irritable as she grabbed her brush, shoving it in between a pillow and some clothes.  
  
“Leaving?” Nico asked, his brow furrowing. “Leaving where?”  
  
Bianca sighed, brushing a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “Anywhere.” She looked over at her little brother, her eyes sad, yet angry at the same time. It was a look Nico hadn’t seen on her in a long time. “Don’t you feel it? Feel like...like we don’t belong? We’re not supposed to be here, Nico. Our own father doesn’t even want us. Why would this camp?”  
  
Nico stared at her. She was echoing his own words. For years, he had told her over and over that he didn’t feel comfortable at the camp. That he wasn’t making friends. That the others avoided him, almost out of instinct. And whenever he brought it up to Bianca, she would always turn the idea of leaving down. She would tell him things would get better, that their father would notice them, that everything would be okay.  
  
It would appear she finally broke.  
  
“Can I come?” Nico asked hesitantly. He didn’t know if this was some adventure she wanted to do alone, like how she almost left him to become a Hunter of Artemis.  
  
Bianca laughed, softly as to not wake the campers, and gathered Nico into her arms for a hug. “Of course. Who else is going to annoy the hell out of me while we travel?”  
  
Nico grinned.  
  
“Well? Go pack!”  
  
Nico nodded hurriedly, crawling over the other demigods to his pack that lay beside his bed. It had the simple things. The necessities. Some ambrosia, nectar, twinkies. He grasped his blade, a standard celestial bronze sword, and slid it into the sheath on his side and packed some clothes. He finished packing around the time Bianca did, and the two siblings quietly stepped over the campers.  
  
Bianca’s foot came down and she farted. Or at least, Nico thought she did. He brought his eyes up, grinned and was about to tell her to shut up, but her eyes were locked on the ground. He looked down and alarm shot through him. She was standing on a whoopie cushion that was right next to Connor Stoll’s head. The guy groaned and rolled over in his bed, mumbled something about telling Travis to stop farting and went quiet.  
  
The two remained still for a minute before moving over to the door. Nico reached it first, his hand on the hilt of his blade as he pushed the door open, cringing as it creaked and he gazed outside. He couldn’t see any harpies, but he knew that they were out there. “What’s your plan for leaving?” he asked, looking back at Bianca.  
  
She pointed and Nico followed her gaze. His eyes landed on one of the strawberry trucks that rested beside the Big House. Nico choked, looking up at her. “You can’t be serious,” he hissed.  
  
“Dead serious.”  
  
“We’re not stealing a truck.”  
  
“Watch me.” Bianca had that mischievous glint in her eye as she slipped out of the cabin and hesitating only for a moment, Nico followed her into the darkness.  
  
The two siblings seemed to melt into the shadows as they crept across the camp, pressing their backs against cabins, doing a quick one-over to make sure there weren’t any scouting harpies before sprinting across the camp grounds. Nico was able to easily keep up with his sister, but he didn’t have her agility. She was much faster, more skilled than he was.  
  
They reached the truck, crouching by the tires. Nico couldn’t see Bianca’s face, it was hidden behind her hair and her green hat and she stood up slowly, trying to open the door. It was locked shut. She swore, lowering herself down a bit. “I should have let Travis teach me how to vandalize and break into cars,” she muttered.  
  
“Could we do the wire thing?” Nico had remembered watching a show where two burglars slid a wire underneath a window to unlock a car, but Bianca shook her head.  
  
“No wire.” She hesitated. “I guess we can always do this.” She drew her dagger, flipped it around and slammed the pommel into the window. The glass shattered and an alarm immediately went off, followed by the screeches of harpies. She threw the door open, leaping into the seat and slammed it shut. “Get in!” she shouted, looking off into the distance where a tree exploded as several harpes leaped off the branches.  
  
Numb, he ran around the side of the truck and threw open the door as Bianca unlocked it, slamming it shut behind him. Well, this was definitely a side of his sister that he had not yet seen. When they first came here, Bianca was timid. Quiet. Shy. Now she looked like she was ready to bust some heads. Holding in frustration and anger for four years did wonders to your temper and behavior.  
  
“Do you even know how to drive?” Nico asked, quickly buckling himself in as Bianca twisted the keys that were in the ignition, putting the truck in drive.  
  
“I’ve watched movies.” She slammed on the gas, rocketing away from the Big House and Nico was just able to see Chiron bursting through the doors of the Big House and shouting at them to stop and then they were gone, racing down the dirt road and away from Camp Half-Blood.  
  
  
  
They were driving for about an hour before the complaining began. It started as soon as Nico knew that they were no longer being chased by harpies crying, “Come back, morsels! You have to sign out before you leave!” But as soon as they disappeared, Nico pressed his face against the window and gave a long sigh.  
  
“I’m hungry.”  
  
Bianca gave her little brother an irritated look. “We just left. If we’re going to actually get away from here, we’ll need to put some distance between ourselves and the camp.”  
  
Nico pouted but stayed silent, watching the city racing by. He was nervous. He had no idea what was going to happen. They always stayed at the camp so that they could be safe. So that they could train to battle monsters and keep themselves alive. A couple of demigods out in the real world, he didn’t know how long it was going to be before they ended up getting swarmed.  
  
Nico shot straight up and Bianca was so startled that she pounded on the breaks, making the car skid and cars behind them honk. “What’s wrong?” she asked concerned and Nico had pressed his face against the window.  
  
“Mc Donalds!” He shouted, pointing out the car window to the McDonalds that rested on the side of the road in front of them.  
  
Bianca scowled. “No.”  
  
“Please!”  
  
“No way, Nico. We have to keep moving, we can’t stop to eat Mc Donalds.”  
  
Then he gave her the look. It was a little puppy eyed look, complete with adorable brown eyes, a sad little frown and the purple bags beneath his eyes. It was a look she couldn’t resist. Bianca growled, tightening her grip on the wheel and rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she muttered. “But we’re not staying there long, okay? We have to keep moving.”  
  
“That’s fine with me,” Nico said with his grin, kicking his feet up on the dashboard and he relaxed back into his seat. He already got what he wanted. Bianca wanted to push him out the door.  
  
  
  
Bianca watched Nico with absolute disgust as the boy began to devour his double hamburger like he hadn’t eaten in weeks. There was ketchup hanging off the edge of his lip and Nico looked up innocently, giving her a confused look. Why was she giving him that look? “What?!” he asked, using the sleeve of his aviators jacket to wipe away the ketchup.  
  
“Nothing,” Bianca said with a roll of her eyes. “We need to figure out where we’re going.”  
  
“I already know,” Nico said, taking another bite. The innocent look was gone from his face. He looked ten times older, his eyes distant.  
  
“Where then?”  
  
Nico looked up. “Home.”  
  
Bianca frowned, leaning forward. “Venice? We don’t have any place there. I barely remember it, you probably can’t remember anything.”  
  
Nico gave her a cold glare. “I remember some things.”  
  
“Oh yeah? Like what?”  
  
“Mother.”  
  
The two demigods went silent. Bianca began to nervously plan with her dark braid and she sighed, looking up at her brother. He had that fierce intensity in his eyes. The kind that scared her sometimes. “There’s no point,” she said gently, reaching across the table to grab Nico’s hand.  
  
He wrenched his hand away. “What do you mean there’s no point?” he asked angrily. “There are things I remember about her. I remember her smile, her face. I remember her voice.”  
  
“Nico, she’s dead. It’s not right to go back there and try to root out a dead memory.”  
  
“I remember her lullaby.”  
  
“Nico, stop.”  
  
“Tu sei il mio soldatino.” You’re my little soldier. “La ragione per cui vivo.” The reason I live.  
  
As soon as he began to sing, his voice soft and evocative, Bianca’s body stiffened. He remembered that lullaby better than he knew. The way her mother used to hold her, sing to her, cradle her. “Nico,” she pleaded, her voice fragile. “Please. We can’t.”  
  
“Non ti scordar di me.” Don’t forget me. “Io vegleiro su di te.” I’m watching over you.  
  
They were both quiet. Nico fell into a hushed silence, looking down at his hamburger as Bianca looked out the window, her eyes rimmed with red. That song had provoked so many memories...but whether they were good or bad, she couldn’t tell. Just an everlasting feeling of nostalgia.  
  
“We have to go back.” She looked up at him. He was gazing at her with his jaw set, his eyes glinting with an unfamiliar hardness. “We can’t remember what happened to her. Only bits and pieces. We have to go back and figure out what happened to her. What happened to us. Who we are, Bianca.”  
  
Bianca didn’t say anything. She was watching the road, the cars flying by, the clouds drifting lazily across the sky. People walking down the sidewalk hand in hand. A little girl being carried by her mother, snuggling her head into her chest as she began to drift asleep. That decided her. She looked back at Nico and gave a firm nod. “Okay,” she said breathlessly. “Let’s do it.”  
  
  
  
**One Year Later**  
  
  
  
“Here you go, ma’am,” Nico muttered, blowing a strand of black hair out of his face as he lowered the tray down to the family that sat in the booth next to the window. Their bratty kid began to tug on his dark hair and he grimaced, yanking his head away and gave them a little, awkward bow after being thanked and started back towards the kitchen.

  
“Nico!” It was Bianca’s voice. Nico turned around and she was walking over to him from a nearby table, her Big Boy uniform stained, but she had a huge grin on her face . “I got a really big tip,” she whispered, pulling out the wad of cash. A twenty dollar tip?! Nico looked up at her with raised brows and she smiled.  
  
“It was a really attractive guy,” she said with a blush. “He was rich, and we got into a conversation and he left this for me.”  
  
“Wait,” Nico murmured, doing the math in his head. Twenty dollars. They had been working here for about ten months. Most of their money had gone to their little apartment, but the rest of it they were saving. “Twenty...” he looked up at her, his eyes wide. “We have enough”  
  
Bianca smiled, nodding excitedly. “I know! We’ll have some spare money for when we get there, too!” She looked over at their manager who was nearby and then leaned down to whisper in Nico’s ear, “I’ll take your shift for today. Take a break, you’ve been working non stop for weeks.”  
  
Nico gave her a skeptical look. “You sure? What would I even do?”  
  
“Do you see that girl in the corner?”  
  
Nico glanced over into the corner of the restaurant. It was the girl that he had been serving earlier. She was pretty, with straight, blonde hair and light blue eyes, sipping on a cup of coffee. She had been watching him. As soon as he met her eye, she blushed, looking away. Nico of course, being the thick headed teenager that he is, didn’t notice and he looked back at Bianca, as if waiting for her point. “Yeah? So?”  
  
“She likes you!”  
  
“What?!” The redness began to spread across his face as she looked back at the girl. “Are you sure?”  
  
“She’s been making it as clear as day.”  
  
Nico hesitated. He wasn’t used to dealing with girls. Or guys. He was into both, but he was never brave enough to confront them himself. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking up at Bianca. “Well, what should I do?”  
  
“I don’t know, but you’d better think fast.” Bianca looked over at something over his shoulder, gave a grin and walked away. What was that about?  
  
“Excuse me?” Nico paled, spinning around. The girl was now directly behind him, her face beet red with blushing. It would appear she was as awkward as he was. The thought made him blush even harder and he gritted his teeth angrily, wishing he could bury his head underground. “You forgot your tip,” she gingerly handed him the money and he stuffed it into his pocket. He thanked her gruffly and went to turn around when she reached out, grabbing his jacket. “Wait!”  
  
Realizing what she did, she blushed furiously, retracting her hand. “I uhm, I was wondering if you wanted to see a movie with me?” she stuttered.  
  
Nico’s voice was lodged in his throat. “I...uh,” he muttered. “I don’t know, I’m still at work-”  
  
“Di’Angelo!”  
  
Nico swiveled around. His boss, a lean woman with the face of a hawk, round rimmed glasses resting on her sharp nose was tapping her high heel expectantly on the tile ground, motioning for him to come over with her long, shaped fingernail. Nico gave a sigh and crossed over, setting the tray down on a nearby table. “Yes, ma’am?” he asked.  
  
“Stop prattling with the customers. You’re on bathroom duty. Womans room. Some woman’s child missed the toilet. It needs to be dealt with.”  
  
“Okay,” Nico said, immediately making up his mind. “Let’s go.”  
  
  
  
“I suppose I should probably tell you my name,” the girl said with a smile. She was wearing a little silver dress that was flowy behind her, making the way she walked almost ethereal. “I’m Erin.”  
  
“Nico,” Nico said. He wasn’t a good conversationalist and he looked up at the movie theater as they approached. It had the movies it was playing up on the board, but the words swam because of his dyslexia and he narrowed his eyes, trying to read. “What’s playing?”  
  
“Can’t you see?”  
  
“I don’t have my glasses.”  
  
Erin looked up at the board. “Let’s see,” she said quietly. “There’s Princess and the Pea!” Nico made a face and Erin laughed. “Catwoman 3?” Nico shook his head. “Rising: The Dead Unleashed?”  
  
“That one,” Nico said immediately and she raised a brow, giving him a warm smile.  
  
“You like zombie movies?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
Erin squirmed a little. “I don’t know,” she said. “I get scared pretty easily.” She looked up at him and her lips upturned angelically. “But I guess it would be okay, just this once.”  
  
The two stepped into the movietheater, got their tickets, some popcorn and made their way to theater seven. They had arrived on the premier night, so the room was packed. Most of the mortals were up in front, so they could have the largest view of zombies tearing apart poor people and so Nico and Erin made their way into the back of the room where they could be alone.  
  
It wasn't as scary as Nico had thought. Hell, it wasn’t even scary. He liked the zombies the best, but every time one appeared, Erin would unconsciously grab at his coat and he would chuckle and immediately pointing out the flaws. “The zombies wouldn’t have their guts hanging out,” he said, pointing at one such zombie. “It wouldn’t be stable enough to walk. Real zombies are a lot more sturdy than people think.”  
  
Erin gave him a strange look and laughed. “And you would know what a real zombie looks like?”  
  
Nico smiled shyly. “No,” he said honestly. “I guess not.” Christ, what was wrong with him? She was going to think he was crazy.  
  
With Nico pointing out the flaws and trying to make jokes out of the zombies whenever Erin looked afraid, they both left the theater laughing while the others were shaking in their boots. They went into the parking lot, the sun had set and the moon was out and Nico laughed at something Erin said.  
  
“You’re right,” he said. “Protagonist or not, if he jumped down from that building, he would have broken both of his legs.”  
  
“Well it is a movie,” Erin said with a laugh. “They don’t really have to abide by physics if cool stunts like that means more income for the producers.”  
  
“An actual realistic zombie movie would be nice.”  
  
“Zombies aren’t real, Nico,” Erin said, sounding like she was speaking to a child, but there was a teasing edge to her voice and Nico rolled his eyes.  
  
“Gee, I never would have guessed.”  
  
“Oh! Look who’s here.”  
  
He stopped. In front of them were two girls. They looked exactly like Erin, but they weren’t dressed the same way. One was wearing a skin tight leather bodysuit. The other was wearing a ripped up leather jacket and she was picking her nails with a knife boredly. They were leaning against a silver corvette.  
  
“Who are these?” He asked with a smile, but it was nervous. What was going on here? His hand unconsciously went to his hip to grab his sword and he swore. He left it in his apartment, he can’t bring a sword to work.  
  
“My sisters,” Erin said with a smile, crossing over to them.  
  
“Oh.” Nico straightened, crossing over to the girls and he held out his hand, trying to be polite. “I’m Nico.”  
  
“I’m Erin,” said the girl in the leather jacket, taking his hand and gave him a wicked smile. She gestured to the girl in the skin tight suit. “And this is Erin.”  
  
That wasn’t what told Nico something was wrong. It was his sister in the back of the corvette, gagged and banging on the window, telling him to run, her dark eyes wide.  
  
But he didn’t run. They were so close to getting out of here, there was no way that he was going to leave her behind. He sprang into action, elbowing Erin 1, the Erin beside him, in the face and leaped up to the Erin with the jacket, Erin 2. He round kicked her in the neck and she gagged, dropping her blade and he picked it up, spinning around. Erin 3 had given herself some distance and was backing up, a dangerous glint in her red eyes. All three girls were changing. Their skin was growing pale, their eyes red and their hair black and stringy. Leathery bat wings were beginning to form underneath their shoulder blades.  
  
“You’re the erinyes,” he muttered, gripping his knife tighter in his hand. He looked down at it and swore. It was regular iron, he wouldn’t be able to hurt these girls with it. He threw it to the side, glaring at them. “But I thought you only attack evil? Like, evildoers?”  
  
“We do,” Erin 1 growled, opening the door and she dragged Bianca out. His sister hit the ground roughly and Nico ran to her side, helping her up and he glared at Erin 1.  
  
“We’re not evil.”  
  
“Not yet,” Erin 2 sighed. “The past, the future, the present. It’s all the same, young demigod.”  
  
Nico ripped Bianca’s gag out of her mouth and the two looked at the erinyes. They were completely defenseless. They had no powers. “What are you going to do to us?”  
  
“What is this for?” Erin 3 pulled something out of the corvette, ignoring their question. It was a jar, filled to the brim with money, stuffed to bursting. Nico and Bianca stiffened.  
  
“Savings,” Bianca said tightly.  
  
“Savings for what?”  
  
“None of your business,” Nico said sharply with a growl. He leaped towards her. “Now hand it over! It’s nothing.”  
  
Erin 3 sidestepped and kneed him in the stomach. He gagged, falling to the ground and curled up, trying to breathe again as the wind had been knocked out of him. Erin 3 stared at Nico for a moment before lifting the jar to the sky. “If it’s nothing, then it’s useless.”  
  
The jar went up in flames. Nico and Bianca watched with their jaws dropped as their money, the money they had been saving for a whole year, went up in flames.  
  
“No!” Nico screamed, lunging at her in a blind rage. He didn’t get far. Erin 2 plucked him off the ground, flapping her wings and flew about twenty feet in the air. Nico struggled against her and she laughed shrilly, waving him around above the ground.  
  
“Don’t make me drop you,” she warned with a cackle. She was right, at this height, if he was dropped he would end up getting something broken, and then he would be of no help to anyone. He relaxed and allowed her to slowly lower him to the ground.  
  
He was plopped down next to Bianca who was shaking with anger, watching the ashes of their savings. Finding the secret of their mother, going to Venice...that dream was now in ashes.  
  
“I’m going to kill you,” he promised, his voice trembling and Erin 1 laughed, leaning down. She grabbed his jaw, yanking his face up so that he was looking at her.  
  
“Maybe, little demigod,” she hissed. Her breath smelled like sulfur. “But I believe it’s your turn first.”  
  
She didn’t get the chance to carry it out. A bronze tipped arrow exploded through her skull and she burst into ash.  
  
This was such a typical first date.  
  
Erin 2 and 3 screeched with alarm, taking up into the air as two demigods emerged from the shadows. A boy and a girl. The boy was tall and muscular, a couple years younger than them with black hair and dark eyes, wielding a celestial bronze blade. The girl was more unique to look at, but she didn’t look half as dangerous. She had pale blonde hair that was pulled up into a high pony tail, with light skin and different colored eyes, one green, one purple. They both wore the same clothes, black jeans with boots and grey shirts that had the symbol of a golden scythe.  
  
“Liz!” shouted the guy, pointing at Erin 2 and Liz nodded, drawing two curved blades and she launched herself up into the air, one dagger impaling itself into Erin 2’s wing and the other trying to find the creature’s throat.  
  
The guy drew his blade and went one on one with Erin 3. It was a short battle. These two harpy like little girls against two seasoned demigod warriors? They didn’t stand a chance. Liz’s blade found Erin 2’s neck and the creature dissolved and after a brief fight with the guy, his blade found her heart and she exploded into ash.  
  
“Orion,” Liz breathed, walking up to the guy. “You okay?”  
  
“I’m fine,” Orion muttered, looking down at Nico and Bianca. His eyes laid on his sister for a second before going to Nico’s. “You guys okay?” he held out his hand and Nico grasped it, pulling himself up.  
  
“Yeah,” Nico said, Liz helping up Bianca. “Yeah, we’re fine, thank you.”  
  
Orion nodded, moving to the Corvette to investigate it and Liz followed short behind. Bianca was tense and she leaned over, whispering in Nico’s ear, “Nico, their shirts.”  
  
“What about them?”  
  
“A scythe.”  
  
Oh shit.  
  
They had to get out of here. The minions of Kronos? They were fighting a war against Kronos. “Well,” Nico said, slowly backing up. “Thank you so much for your help, but we need to go and do things so we’re just going to go-”  
  
“No you’re not,” Orion said boredly, rummaging through the back seat of the corvette and Nico narrowed his eyes. “You need to speak with our leader.”  
  
Nico and Bianca exchanged nervous looks. “And that would be...?”  
  
“Me.”  
  
Nico and Bianca turned around as a guy strode up to them. He was older than them, way older, with messy blonde hair and blue eyes, a scar going down his face and he gazed down at them with the glint of a madman flashing in his eyes. He didn’t need to say his name. Nico had heard enough stories to know who this guy was. “Luke Castellan.” He immediately went into battle mode, along with Bianca. He was the disgraced traitor of Camp Half-Blood.  
  
Luke saw the gesture. He raised his hands up disarmingly. “It’s cool,” he said, leaning against a pickup behind him. “I’m not going to hurt you. Guys.”  
  
Orion and Liz lowered their blades obediently.  
  
“You two are Nico and Bianca,” Luke said. “Hades’ kids, right?”  
  
Nico and Bianca stiffened. They looked at each other in shock and back at Luke. Hades? That wasn’t possible, there was no way they were the children of Hades.  
  
“I think you have us confused with someone else,” Bianca said. “We’re not children of Hades.”  
  
Luke raised a brow. “Yes, you are. My lord Kronos told me.” His eyes softened. “Chiron knew. Didn’t he tell you?”  
  
Nico gritted his teeth. Now it made sense. He loved zombies. He loved the dark. He could even see in the dark. Bianca was obsessed with gold, and she enjoyed shadow as well. Children of Hades. “No,” he said coolly. “He didn’t.”  
  
Luke nodded like he wasn’t surprised, crossing over to them. They stiffened, but he didn’t seem to mind. “A shame,” he said. “But it happens way too often. Being used by the Gods. What was in the jar?” he nodded towards the fragments and Bianca and Nico looked at each other. There was no point in keeping secrets.  
  
“We were saving up to go to Venice,” Bianca said. “Our mother is dead, we don’t know how, and we don't know our pasts. We know now who we are...sort of, but there are too many unanswered questions. We have a feeling we’ll find our answers in Venice, so we were saving up...” she trailed off and sighed, a pained look on her face. Nico looked at the ashes, anger flaring through him. All of their hard work in cinders.  
  
Luke watched them both for a long moment. Finally he stepped forward. “Children of Hades are powerful. We could use you in our army.”  
  
“No,” Bianca and Nico said almost simultaneously.  
  
“We aren’t going to betray Camp Half-Blood,” Nico said coldly. “We aren’t going to be a traitor, like you.”  
  
Luke’s jaw twitched. “They mocked you. They ignored you. Chiron lied to you. What do you owe them?”  
  
Nico didn’t know how to answer that. The Camp never offered him anything. It just made him feel left out, like a freak, like an outcast. And he could see Bianca was thinking the same thing, her eyes were distant and she was chewing on the inside of her lip.  
  
“We’ll give you passage to Venice.”  
  
Nico and Bianca looked up, startled. Luke smirked. That caught their attention. “If you fight for us, we will give you your tickets to Venice, and enough money to start a life there, if that’s what you want.”  
  
It was practically blood money, being paid to kill. Being paid to kill people that they know. What if they had to raise blades against Connor or Travis? Silena? Chiron? But then he remembered the times they made him feel worthless. How Connor and Travis kept teasing him when they got there. How Silena had said nothing as Drew began to taunt him about his hair. How Chiron had lied to him about him being unclaimed. He knew who they were this entire time, he just said nothing.  
  
He looked up at Bianca. She was being tempted. How could she not? It was a pretty good deal. She met his eye and a silent message passed between them. Fighting their “friends” and the Camp...it was worth finding who they were. Like people said, the children of Hades hold grudges close to heart. He looked at Luke, his eyes hard. “You have to swear on River Styx,” he said coldly. “Swear on River Styx that you’ll help us get to Venice and we’ll fight for you.”  
  
For a moment, Luke’s eyes flashed gold, a cold smile slipping across his features. He drew a dagger from his hip and held up his hand and he sliced the blade across his palm. Blood dripped down his hand and he clenched it, the blood squeezing up between his fingers and running down his hand.  
  
“I swear.”


End file.
